Rolling back energy subsidies is one of the most vexing problems energy export-revenue-dependent countries face. The problems starts innocently enough when countries discovery vast natural resource deposits and begin profiting substantially from their development. In developing economies, it has been common practice everywhere from Venezuela to Nigeria to the Middle East to supply the population… Keep reading →
The dramatic shift in the US natural gas sector over the past five years calls for a rethink of at least some aspects of natural gas policy. But heated debates over its economic and environmental impacts, and uncertain progress on regulatory and legislative changes, show how elusive agreement on a new policy trajectory can be.… Keep reading →
The US energy sector has been a rare bright spot through much of the past four years as first financial firms and then the rest of the global economy has struggled to recover from a grinding and often jobless recession.
Statistics about jobs vary, but any region with significant oil or gas resources has noted the uptick in employment in those sectors as development has accelerated. The most recent numbers from Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry, for example, show core employment in the Marcellus Shale developments in the state up by 177.5% from first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2012, even as the state’s overall employment level has lagged that of the rest of the country. Keep reading →
